Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Taking inspiration from my friend, and not to be outdone by BB2, I too aspired to the perfect week recently. Though I cannot touch (nor do I plan to attempt) his 2x per day obsession, I did successfully eat there 5 weekdays in a row recently. I got hooked on BB2's EZ pico recommendation on Baja steak and especially like how it teases out the guacamole flavor. It is definitely better with steak but also plays well on chicken too. Other varieties in my 5-day mix were the Ultimo chicken w/ EZ sour cream and the Veggie burrito with black beans and EZ sour cream, then add chicken. But the best part of the week had to be the novelty of critiquing burritos on the porch with BB2-- thanks again for lending a hand to help move that chair!

BB1

The Perfect Week

What a week! Baja for lunch and dinner every day Monday through Friday - 10 visits in 5 days. Pure culinary bliss. The perfect week. Yes indeed.

In my 9+ years as a Baja enthusiast, I've enjoyed many amazing back-to-back Baja meals, but this was the first time I made a conscious decision to stay truly consistent for a whole week. Can't believe I waited so long to do it. The experience was incredible. So many highlights. In no particular order:

• Custom taquitos on the house! Anybody ever had the chicken taquitos prepared with Baja salsa, the red hot salsa and cilantro? I would have gladly caughed up some serious dough for this delicious dish, but I wasn't about to complain when it was offered up on the house by the friendly staff. Tuesday's dinner couldn't have been better.


• Dinner with the whole gang. Wednesday night was special because a bunch of us got together for dinner. It doesn't exactly hurt when the people you care about join you at Baja. And the Ultimo Burrito with steak (no sour cream, guacamole added, enchilado style, extra enchilado salsa) didn't make it any worse.


• Best quesadilla ever! If you step into Baja and you're not sure what you want to order, you can count on the staff to make some clever recommendations. Proof: Who would have thought to add diablo sauce and cilantro to the chicken quesadilla? That's how I wrapped up the week with dinner on Friday. Outstanding.


• Lunch with BB1 on his patio. The two Baja Boyz get together over a burrito quite frequently, but it's not everyday we pick 'em up and bring all that flavor with us. Some furniture lifting was required that day too, but after the manual labor we got to enjoy our Baja Burritos with steak (easy pico, crispy - as always) out on the patio. Baja and fresh air - fantastic!

So beyond these highlights and the joy throughout the perfect week, what was the point? Well, this is basically the test. If you want to make sure you're a Baja lover - a true Baja boy or girl - you should try a full week of it. In fact, that goes for any restaurant you might be into. Put your culinary love to the test! Are you just a normal eater or do you appreciate something so much that you can eat it all the time? And do all restaurants have lovers like this? Interestingly, a couple of the Sharky's lovers I know told me they wouldn't even be able to do anything close to this. Maybe Baja love is stronger than any other love?

BB2

Baja Me

The Baja Boyz may have put eating over blogging lately, but we're never turning our backs on the Baja Buzz - we're still buzzin' for the right stuff...

And some things just need to be documented. My plan for an all-Baja week (the perfect week as my brother calls it) most certainly falls in that category. This is my own little version of Super Size Me, only tastier and healthier. Sadly though, Baja Fresh doesn't offer breakfast so I'll have to stick to my Honey Bunches of Oats in the morning, but this week I plan to have Baja Fresh for lunch and dinner every single day!

I'm not sure what to expect from this experiment other than pure culinary joy and some of that buzz we all love, but people seem to find this idea strange for some reason. My response to the world? Well, it's just sad that not everybody has found something they love enough to eat all the time. If they had, they wouldn't find this plan the least bit odd.

I'll be reporting as I go through the week, but I can tell you right away that this is going to be amazing. For lunch today I had a Baja Burrito with steak, easy pico de gallo, crispy and diablo sauce added. How can you go wrong with that? And for dinner I went with the Burrito Mexicano with chicken, hot salsa, pinto beans and queso fundido added. Just delightful.

For all the wonderful Baja Fresh employees out there, I got two words: BAJA ME!

BB2

Starting the Week off Right

Sometimes you gotta double up - a Baja-free weekend (pathetic) may just have to be followed by two visits on a Monday. At least that's how I felt today. One trip didn't do it for me, but I had to switch up both location and meal.

After going basic but bonafide for lunch - Baja burrito with steak, crispy - at restaurant #2, I went more advanced for dinner. How about a burrito customized from scratch: mixed meat, rice, queso fundido, cheese, guacamole, easy sour cream and some lettuce. Oh yeah! It all went down at restaurant #50, and it was delicious. The pic truly does not do it justice, so you gotta just take my word for it and try it next time.

On an unrelated note, I've been seeing a lot of Baja tweets over the summer, and you know the Baja Boyz recommend following Baja Fresh on twitter. Good to see them taking advantage of the social media tools available. We'll be coming back with more on Baja Fresh marketing though...

BB2

Spreading the Love

I was more than happy to help my local store manager promote a push for more online and phone orders by passing out coupons to my colleagues. Here is the text of an e-mail I sent to approximately 200 people in my office today.

Team,

As some of you know, I am a huge Baja Fresh fan. Today the local store manager gave me a wad of “$2 off next purchase” and “$5 off any online or phone order >$5” to share with you.

Get ‘em while they last and let please them know I sent you!

I tagged each of the coupons with my initials and will report back whether the manager sees and increase in store traffic from my efforts.

BB1

Free Burrito Day - July 22, 2009

Is Baja Fresh figuring out social media marketing? Perhaps...

On July 22, the company posted a free burrito w/ purchase of a regular beverage coupon on its Facebook page (note to self: rant about company doing a way with small drinks in a future post).

According to the company they gave away over 50,000 burritos last week. I'm curious about the rationale for such an investment. At an average $6 per unit, how do you recoup a $300,000 when it's being promoted primarily to existing customers? The promotion would need to hook 6,000 new loyal customers who spend a minimum of $50 in the near future just to hit break-even.

More commentary on recent Baja Fresh marketing activities in an upcoming post.

BB1

A New Fav BF Combo

Thanks to my colleagues Mark and Ian for turning me on to my latest favorite dish: Grilled Vegetarian Burrito; add chicken; black beans; easy sour cream. Captures all of the flavor of the Ultimo Burrito without the weight of the rice. Lettuce gave it surprisingly good texture and beans made it hearty and healthy too. I'm looking forward to trying different variations on this theme(add jalapeno, crispy, etc.). Just might head back there today for another go at it. Yum!

BB1